Tour de France: Rui Costa wins stage 16 after breakaway

Rui Costa produced a confident ride up Col de Manse to win stage 16 of the Tour de France as Briton Chris Froome retained his place as overall leader.

Costa climbed the summit and raced home alone to finish 42 seconds clear.

The Movistar rider was part of a 26-man breakaway and the Portuguese moved into the lead with 17km left, holding off the chasing pack to claim victory.

Froome almost came to grief chasing Alberto Contador on the final descent, but stayed upright to finish 29th.

And he is well on course to succeed compatriot Sir Bradley Wiggins as the race winner, with his overall lead remaining at four minutes 14 seconds over his nearest challenger, Bauke Mollema, with Contador third another 11 seconds back.

Analysis

"That was a little bit of a missed opportunity for Saxo-Tinkoff's two riders, Alberto Contador and Roman Kreuziger, to take some time out of Chris Froome today. But Froome and Richie Porte did a superb job to hold this race together."

"I think Alberto Contador was a little careless to attack like that round the corners," said Froome, 28.

"He went off in front of me and I had to go off and unclip.

"There is never a quiet day on the Tour; if they are not attacking on the climbs, they are attacking on the descents."

Running off into the roadside gravel was a rare moment of drama for Froome, who was expertly marshalled at the front of the peloton by his Team Sky colleagues.

With Spain's David Navarro, who began the day more than 23 minutes adrift in the general classification, the best-placed rider among the early escapees, the British-based outfit could afford to allow the breakaway to stretch clear.

Instead they were focused on maintaining a solid pace and then marking Contador and his Saxo Bank team-mate Roman Kreuziger's late surges on the final climb up the category two Col de Manse.

Sky's resources have been stretched by Edvald Boasson Hagen's withdrawal through injury and
Vasil Kiryienka being timed out on stage eight,
but Britons Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas did long stints at the front of the main pack, before Richie Porte came into his own late on.

Froome and Contador had to make up ground after running wide late on

The Australian, closely followed by Froome, chased down a succession of breaks by Contador to deliver his team's lead rider over the crest of Col de Manse in contact with the Spaniard.

Contador pushed too hard attempting to pull clear on the final descent, though, leading Froome into trouble in the process.

Both men fell behind Netherlands' Mollema in the incident, but made good their losses by the finish line with the help of Porte.

By that time, Costa's solo break had been rewarded with his second Tour stage win.

French pair Christophe Riblon and Arnold Jeannesson were second and third respectively.

Another home favourite, Thomas Voeckler, and world road race champion Philippe Gilbert were among the breakaway riders who failed to organise quickly enough in the wake of the Portuguese's acceleration.

Comments

@190Unfortunately messrs Riis and Ullrich were not stripped of their TDF GC titles. Bjarne Riis now manages Saxo-Tinkoff - Contador's team. His continued presence in the sport is bound to cast doubts on the "cleanliness" of those around him. By letting Sean Yates go, Team Sky have at least tried to be consistent in their zero tolerance attitude towards drug use.

@183.Sky demanded a declaration in writing of the whole staff after the revelation of Lance Armstrong this winter. Stefan de Jong didn't sign and had to leave. Team physician Geert Leinders had to leave team-SKY after it became known that he was involved in the doping programme of team-RABO. Team-SKY does everything to keep any connection with the "old doping culture" far away from them.

Look at the history of TDF and since testing the odds are that the winner of the tour is more likely to have doped than not. In fact the top ten are more likely to have doped than not. The list is massiff, just Google Tour de France general classification winners and you will see how laughable this sport is. A sad reflection on society that we are willing to ignore the truth for self gain.

@ 198no i dont know if froome is doped or not. Nobody knows except him.I criticize this 100 percent innocent claims of people who cant simply know it. They dont live with him. The only thing which would prove it when someone would follow him 24/7 but that will never happen because he wants his privacy.

#191Chris Froome? Well, I have not seen or heard anything that would suggest doping. As I have said before he is a freak of nature, ideally suited to grand tours, who was noticed by Rod Ellingworth and then was meticulously prepared by Team Sky. I have a lot of admiration for Alberto Contador, but unfortunately, there are doubts about his previous performances. A great rider nonetheless.

@ 195exaktly, I started watching the tour in 1987. Maybe a lot here who scathe us here because we have a different opinon were not even born. Wouldnt be surprised they started being interested in cycling since July 2012.And all their arguements are just copy and paste what sky and their Managers say. Like they would admit Doping in front of the cameras.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.